8th PDAC honors
officers for their efforts

By William Kenny
Times Staff Writer

Capt. Deborah Kelly of the 8th Police District is a firm believer that protecting the community takes not only individual acts of heroism by a few cops but also a consistent commitment by all officers, along with a helping hand from the general public.
The 8th Police District Advisory Council recognized exemplary performances in all three areas on Feb. 7 during the monthly PDAC meeting.
Awards went to two Officers of the Month, 16 officers who recorded perfect attendance for 2006, and one local resident who acted well beyond the norm in helping cops track down a group of violent criminals.
Local husband and father John Bondiskey may have spared countless fellow citizens from a terrifying experience when he helped 8th district cops identify and locate a group of carjacking suspects on Jan. 24.
As it was, Kelly said, the arrests "cleared" two previously unsolved gunpoint robberies in the 8th district and two more in the neighboring 7th district.
Shortly after 11 that night, Bondiskey was on his way to a relative’s home to pick up his son when he spotted a group of suspicious young men in the 12700 block of Dunks Ferry Road.
The four males were suspicious in that they covered their faces while crossing the street, as if not to be identifiable.
From the relative’s front door, Bondiskey could still keep an eye on the group as they wandered the immediate neighborhood.
A short time later, Bondiskey returned to his nearby home and learned from his wife that a friend had been the victim of an attempted carjacking. And the descriptions of the suspects fit the four males he had seen on Dunks Ferry Road.
Bondiskey returned to his vehicle and drove toward where he had seen the group. He spotted them again along Academy Road and called 911. He continued to track the group until police arrived.
When officers arrested and searched the males, they allegedly found two semi-automatic handguns and some drugs.
Bondiskey received a Civilian Award from the district.
With 2006 in the books, Kelly took the opportunity to recognize 15 officers who didn’t miss a single day throughout the year. In turn, community relations Officer Steve Carr gave Kelly an award for achieving the same feat.
Perfect attendance is a difficult achievement in any job, and tougher yet in police work. Most cops work rotating shifts and holidays. Also, they often have to miss big personal events like weddings, graduations and other activities, simply because the city needs them on the street doing their job.
That’s in addition to the illnesses that afflict everyone from time to time.
"The police department is in the business of public service. When we leave it unattended . . . we leave a big gap," Kelly said.
The award-winners included Lt. Joseph Mullin, Sgt. Bruce DeNoble, Sgt. Jeffrey Strunk and officers Randall Craig, Dennis Gallagher, Harry Taylor, Kevin Conaway, James Balmer, David Hamilton, Walter Nejman, Nancy Farrell, Richard Greger, Michael Smith, Samuel Gonzalez and Joseph Pawko.
Craig has gone an amazing 26 years without taking an unscheduled day off.
Kelly noted that the perfect-attendance officers not only demonstrate reliability but also show initiative, dedication and consistency, and are positive role models for children, their families and their co-workers.
Balmer joined with his partner, Officer James Boccalupo, to earn Officer of the Month honors.
The recognition resulted from their investigation of a pattern of assaults and robberies of Father Judge students last year by other young people.
Descriptions of the assailants were similar in a series of crimes. The suspects were often seen traveling up Rowland Avenue toward the school from the area of Abraham Lincoln High School.
The officers coordinated their investigation with administrators from both schools. On Dec. 20, they were deployed to patrol the Judge area in plainclothes and an unmarked car.
That day they spotted about a half-dozen males walking north on Crispin Street who allegedly jumped two Judge students. The officers split up and pursued the offenders on foot, capturing three of them, all juveniles.
Also during the PDAC meeting, Greg McDonald, acting deputy medical examiner for the city of Philadelphia, informed residents about the basics of classifying deaths.
McDonald is a forensic pathologist and conducts human autopsies. His mission is to determine the cause and manner of death in cases meeting one of a series of circumstances.
The ME’s office has jurisdiction over unnatural deaths, deaths involving children and young adults, newly discovered deaths where the body has begun to decompose, and deaths of unknown or "unclaimed" people. Also, anytime a Philadelphia prison inmate dies, the case goes to the medical examiner.
There are myriad causes of death, but only five manners of death used by the ME’s office for classification purposes.
The cause refers to the immediate circumstance that resulted in death, such as pneumonia, heart attack, AIDS, gunshot wound, stab wound or strangulation.
Manner of death refers to "how the cause of death came into being," McDonald said.
Categories include natural, suicide, homicide, accidental and undetermined.
Among the 407 city deaths last year ruled as homicide, 80 percent were caused by gunshot. According to McDonald, the 2007 rate is "on par" with last year’s number.
Determining the manner of death can be complicated business when one considers that often people don’t die directly from an event, but instead from secondary conditions that develop over time.
Similarly, someone may have a longstanding medical condition, such as a heart problem. Under many circumstances a heart attack would not prove fatal, but if it occurs while the person is driving a car or swimming, the episode can result in death.
Also, drug overdoses can be suicide or accidental depending if the victim was trying to kill himself or merely trying to get high. Or the person who supplied the fatal drugs can be considered at fault, making the death a homicide. ••
The next 8th Police District Advisory Council meeting will be held at 7 p.m. Wednesday, March 7, in the district roll-call room at Academy and Red Lion roads.
Reporter William Kenny can be reached at 215-354-3031 or bkenny@phillynews.com